Well, we all got really sick after my last post. In fact, we passed that sweet “homeschooling in bed” moment and drove off a proverbial cliff. The next day we were too sick to do any school at all and lost out on the rest of the week’s schoolwork. Ivy got a really high fever for a few nights and actually started hallucinating at one point.

I had just given her some ibuprofen because I could tell the last dose was wearing off and the fever was climbing up again. I put her back to bed on the couch when she suddenly asked me, “Mom, when you are sick are you supposed to see things in the window?”
“Well, like what?” I asked apprehensively.
“Like a doll.”
A shiver ran through me, it sounded really creepy. But it was about to get a whole lot creepier.
She suddenly gasped, “A tarantula! Oh….nevermind.” She didn’t really seem scared, and appeared to realize there was nothing actually there.
Then in rapid succession she exclaimed about what she was seeing: a man playing a guitar, a man with no arms eating something by bobbing his head up and down, and a castle with a village and a garden and path.

I finally told her to close her eyes and get some rest. She was freaking me out.
The rest of the night was uneventful, she slept peacefully once the medicine took effect. The ugly cough was pretty bad though and it has yet to clear up. In fact, I think the illness hit her the hardest out of all of us. Just yesterday she got a coughing fit that made her throw up, poor baby. If it doesn’t clear up by Wednesday or Thursday I may have to take her to the doctor. I figure a week with a really bad cough merits some medical attention.

In other Ivy news, today she came home from catechism and said she didn’t feel ready for her First Communion because she feels she hasn’t studied the life of Jesus enough. As if any of us have! And then she squeezed my heart by saying that she didn’t want to wear a white dress for her First Communion because she wanted to be humble before the Lord. I asked her, “Well what then, do you want to wear a sack cloth or something?” I laughed, but she nodded solemnly. “Yes,” she said.

Playing dress up as a nun recently

Then she proceeded to tell me she didn’t want to be herself, she wanted to be a saint. I told her that God made her as she is and loves her as she is, but that being herself does not stop her from being a saint.

Phillip and I were commenting how we just don’t deserve a daughter as sweet as Ivy. She is probably already on the road to sainthood if she keeps it up like this. She is always forgiving, generous, helpful, hard-working, self-sacrificing and deeply sensitive to others. She has humbled me so many times by telling me how much she loves me and how happy she is that I am her mother. These are sweet words that I eat up, especially since she seems to know just when I need to hear them because I’m feeling inadequate in my mothering.

Another thing she said to me is that she would like to one day be known as Saint Ivy of the Cross. And about a week ago she asked if I could take her to Adoration so that she could ask Jesus to make her a nun. I am always left stunned by these assertions and the things that come out of her mouth. I pray that she will always remain this pure of heart and that she will always be open to God’s will for her life.

I’ve heard it said that God’s love is limitless, and that the only limits to His love are the ones that we ourselves place on Him. God seems to work in Ivy’s life in a very concrete way, and it seems to me that she never places any limits on God’s love. I ask you all to also pray for Ivy and for God’s will to be done in her life.